180g Double LP Available on Vinyl for the First
Time! Includes Previously Unreleased Tracks!
Michael Fremer Rated 10/11 Music, 10/11 Sound in his July 2014 reviews on
www.analogplanet.com!

When C้cile McLorin Salvant arrived at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC to
compete in the finals of the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz
Competition, she was not only the youngest finalist, but also a mystery woman
with the most unusual background of any of the participants. When she walked
away with first place in the jazz world's most prestigious contest, the buzz
began almost immediately. If anything, it has intensified in the months leading
up to the launch of her Mack Avenue Records debut, WomanChild.

Yet at almost every step of the way, McLorin Salvant has followed a different
path from her peers. Born in Miami to a French mother and Haitian father,
McLorin Salvant's first language was French. She immersed herself in the
classical music tradition, long before she turned to jazz  starting on piano at
age 5 and joining the Miami Choral Society at age 8. When it came time for
college, McLorin Salvant bypassed all the U.S. conservatories and jazz schools,
heading instead to Aix-en-Provence in France, where she continued to develop as
a singer, but with an emphasis on classical and baroque vocal music as well as
jazz.

There, thousands of miles away from jazz's land of origin, McLorin Salvant
entered into a fruitful partnership with reed player and teacher Jean-Francois
Bonnel, first as a student and soon as a performer. Before returning to the
U.S., she gave concerts in Paris, recorded with Bonnel's quintet, and immersed
herself in the early jazz and blues vocal tradition. By the time she returned to
her home country to take the stage in the Monk Competition, she had drawn on
this unusual set of formative experiences in shaping a personal style of jazz
singing, surprising and dramatic by turns, and very much in contrast to that of
the other participants and McLorin Salvant's contemporaries.

On WomanChild, McLorin Salvant draws on songs spanning three centuries of
American music. "I like to choose songs that are a little unknown or have been
recorded very few times," McLorin Salvant notes. "While these songs aren't
recognized as standards, many should be because they are so beautifully
crafted."

On the album, her repertoire ranges from the 19th century ballad "John Henry,"
refreshed in a spirited up-to-date arrangement, to McLorin Salvant's own 21st
century waltz "Le Front Cache? Sur Tes Genoux" which draws on a poem by Haitian
writer Ida Salomon Faubert for its lyric. She is joined by a world class band
who share her concern for creating jazz of today by drawing on vibrant
traditions of the past: pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Rodney Whitaker (both of
whom are Mack Avenue label mates), guitarist James Chirillo and master drummer
Herlin Riley.

On WomanChild, McLorin Salvant gives music lovers the chance to hear why the
illustrious judges at the Monk Competition gave her top honors. McLorin Salvant
is still a bit of a mystery, but she will hardly be a secret any longer.

"Her phrasing and timing are locked in yet loose and supple; her range seems
unlimited. She literally creates a fresh breeze that you will feel before the
end of the opener...You will fall in love the first play through, with both the
musical performances and the sonics." -Michael Fremer, analogplanet.com,
Music 10/11, Sound 10/11

"If anyone can extend the lineage of the Big Three--Billie Holiday, Sarah
Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald--it is this 23-year-old virtuoso..." -Stephen
Holden, New York Times